Duck Season 2015-2016

[Darren]

Sat. 11-7-2015
Delacroix lease
Raymond and I w/ Harry
Wind 0-5 from the ENE, felt like you could drink the 75+ degree air, would have been a muggy day even for Sept teal season

Ray and I scouted some shallow areas on he and Anthony's lease yesterday mid morning; wasn't much anywhere else but in these shallows there were grays and grays. On arrival this morning they were still in there and made for the hunt we'd hope it would be. Had them landing in decoys before LST and kept coming steady thereafter. Shot poorly in low light on first couple of groups but still had our 12 down within about 25 minutes of hunt time. Had but one single teal cross the pond, and we missed on an iffy chance with skirting mottleds, other than that it's gray duck city. Left 'em landing still trying to come in when we were picking up so hope they were able to retake the pond for rest of today.

It was harry's first regular season hunt where he wasn't limited by gators and on the first few single retrieves he was solid but as the retrieves got a little longer (dead birds, but further out in pond) he started to balk and it's got me wondering if he didn't get tired and lost focus. He wouldn't even cast out by the end of the hunt which is the first I've seen of that. Once back at the camp threw a few of the birds off the dock and he was eager to retrieve and did so just fine so that's what had me wondering about the fatigue.

Try 'em again tomorrow in same pond with one more shooter

12 grays

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So hot had to get the waders off before starting the boat trek back to camp

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Others in area had mostly teal in the typical areas known for harboring them, still mostly bluewings though. Marsh overall was awfully quiet, supporting what Larry had seen (or not seen) in this week's survey of the area.

[Rick]

Sweet.

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt man!

[Darren]

Sun. 11-8-2015
Delacroix lease
Raymond, Johnny and I w/ Harry
Wind 15-30 from N/NE, temps low 60's, steady rain to off and on mist

Back to same pond from day before but with tides up over 1.5ft from day before, marsh flooded, was up to the top of the dock at the camp when we shoved off this morning; made the boat ride down to the hunting grounds pretty interesting to say the least. Fortunately, the birds stuck around and we had a good time even though we weren't hidden too well in the floods. Saw more grays overall today and much more teal than day before, likely taking to the flooded marsh all around us now. Hot and heavy early but later they got skittish and also we had boat parked downwind of the pond which was on the approach route for some of the birds, big mistake. Even so we knocked down our 18 easily but lost two crips that dove on Harry and never resurfaced. Try again later this week with a front coming through and hopefully lower water so we can hide properly

Had great photos on my phone from this hunt but it fell out of jacket into puddle in the boat, it's shot for the moment, hoping I can eventually get those photos. Raymond snapped this one which shows what we were dealing with

16 grays

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[DComeaux]

I love the grays! I haven't been really in em since my marsh hunting days and we seem to have a few around now in the rice. I hope they stay!

[Darren]

Thurs. 11-12-2015
Delacroix lease
Anthony and I with our hounds, Cole and Harry
Wind 0-25+ from SW then around to North, temps low 60's, two lines of rain passed with front

Went from hot with mosquitos for first half of hunt then rippin' wind and light rain second half of hunt. Water back down to normal levels but no birds in pond on arrival. Slow flights early with only 5 on the strap went front came through a couple hours in; wind shifted to in our face so took the time to adjust blind and decoys accordingly in preparation for the post-front flights that thankfully materialized. Added 6 more grays to give us 11, missed a few chances to give us an easy 12 for sure. Didn't help us that our hide was suspect, at best. Not much cover on this spot any more and our bush branches weren't quite enough to cover us how we'd like. Water was dropping hard and should stay low for tomorrow, will have to hit he deeper ponds.

11 grays

Harry on the retrieve

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Front line coming through

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Anthony and Cole on their first hunt of the big season

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[Rick]

Anthony and Cole on their first hunt of the big season

Spoiled them.

[Darren]

Fri. 11-13-2015
Delacroix lease
Raymond & I with Harry
N/NE winds 15-25+, clear skies, 50's

Fearing water falling out this morning we changed location from where we had been going, opting for a deeper pond. Unfortunately not a whole lot of traffic over us and what did come by wasn't committing. Other blind in similar pond 350 yards away had plenty chances for limits and were just a few shy when we opted to pack it in just after 8:00am with not much happening.

2 GW teal, 1 gray

lone gray

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Off to check out our home marsh for a planned youth hunt tomorrow AM, hope we've got a few birds around, haven't been in a couple weeks.

[DComeaux]

Still better than me sitting in here! Thats a pretty marsh. Any reds in there?

[Darren]

Still better than me sitting in here! Thats a pretty marsh. Any reds in there?

It's full of reds, I've been fishing the area far longer than I've hunted it.

Tomorrow's prospects for a local youth hunt are looking questionable, we'll give it a shot though. We've got a streak of limits with this young hunter going but this might be the year the streak ends.

[Rick]

Then you'll be "building character". Which isn't nearly as much fun as shooting ducks, but they tell me it's important.

[Darren]

Then you'll be "building character". Which isn't nearly as much fun as shooting ducks, but they tell me it's important.

Good point Rick, but turns out I was able to delay that lesson for another year.

[Darren]

Sat. 11-14-2015
SE La public marsh
Youth hunter David with dad Michael joining Harry and I
N/NE winds 15-20+, clear skies, upper 40's

With all the searching I did yesterday, ended up trying a location that had the most birds yesterday albeit not a whole lot. Thankfully what came treated us well and David put them down. Got two from first flight of decoying grays, picked up a mottled and a spoon, then wrapped it up with two GW teal in one shot as a wad descended on our dekes. Had a few lulls but just enough to make the hunt enjoyable and we were corralling Harry for photo ops by 6:45am. Harry had a great morning as well.

The streak is alive and well! No other youth hunters out today in our area. Left the grays working us as we picked up dekes and saw a good few more than yesterday on our boat tour back to the launch.

2 GW teal, 2 grays, 1 mottled, 1 spoonie

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Harry's first spoon

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His trusty guide pulls another one out the hat

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[Rick]

Good on David and Harry. And, of course, their guide.

[DComeaux]

SWEET! Stud gadwall!

[Darren]

Being in a marsh that hadn't seen decoys since September really makes a difference, putting kids on birds that aren't educated makes it sooooo much easier. These birds dropped on in giving him absolutely text book chances; keep the youth hunts on front end of season! Wish I had a photo of his barrel pointed at the wad of beautiful grays fully committed to us right off the bat, great morning out there. Also got word that another area of ours that I found to be a duck dessert yesterday had some new arrivals in impressive numbers this morning and produced a stellar strap for a trio of youth hunters. Hope they're starting to show!

[Darren]

Fri. 11/20/2015
SE La public marsh
Raymond, Harry and I
N/NE winds 5-10+, clear skies, upper 40's to start

Gave a local Coastal zone area a try but it just wasn't happening, overall very few birds and this area is usually highly pressured. Had nice set up which gave us a few chances but with the water up, we were seated down in a pirogue and made getting underway for anything not right in front of us pretty tough. Few chances we had on grays had them dropping in right over us approaching from behind so had a few missed shooting ops. Got one gray and better shooting would have had a few more joining him. Pretty morning, nonetheless.


1 gray

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Gave our East Zone marsh a look after and it's not looking too promising for the opener tomorrow, we'll go give it a shot and also hope that the approaching front stirs things up and brings new faces. Tides are way up so hiding will be tough.

[Deltaman]

Good stuff Darren, and glad to see you keeping the youth tradition alive with a good hunt

[Darren]

Sat. 11-21-2015
SE La public marsh - East Zone opener
Johnny, Beau Harry and I
N/NE winds 0-10+, cloudy, 50's

Initial thoughts of giving last week's youth hunt hole a try went south when we arrived and found someone there, after all it's so close and convenient it's literally like hunting off the side of the boat trail, so no surprise. Hit backup plan which was our big blind from last year and managed to tie for high blind in the area. Was scary slow for first hour but started getting a few ops on decoying grays here and there with not much in between. Had 5 in hand when I paddled off to get the boat to prepare for departure.....was just about to head back to blind with boat and gun fire turned my head to see 4 grays raining down over the blind, i'll take it! We had a good time and Harry had probably his best day yet, working nicely from the pirogue and also tracking a couple of lively crips in the flooded marsh.

9 grays

Coming in the back, returning to pirogue stand. Fortunately many birds fell on back of blind so he was able to mark them.

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Try 'em again tomorrow in likely same location.

[Rick]

Just another day in the marsh for Johnny, but Beau be looking proud. Made me smile to see him.

[Darren]

Just another day in the marsh for Johnny, but Beau be looking proud. Made me smile to see him.

Other than the stellar speck hunt you showed Beau, he's been largely snake bit on hunts with me, regardless of location. We had to note that Saturday's take was the highest to date for us sharing a blind. He did, however, get on a jam up teal shoot this morning a bit further south of us. They had nothing but teal, I didn't even put eyes on a teal today, bizarre.

[Darren]

Sun. 11/22/2015
SE La public marsh
Johnny, Dusty, Harry and I
Wind N/NE 15-30+, clear skies, upper 30's to start, frontal passage over night

With conditions we'd typically look forward to, we hoped for a significant improvement in bird numbers but they didn't materialize. Back in same blind as day before, added a few more dekes for bulk, but didn't see the number of grays from day before, and the other big ducks like mottleds and now-increasing mallard numbers plainly showed that our comparatively larger pond and it's building chop were not something they were interested in. Saw good many of those big birds but consistently dropping in to our northwest in small waters after taunting us on edge of the pond time and again. Lesson learned, when wind is that big, probably best to tuck into something a little smaller. Killed about all the grays we had chances on but let an embarrassingly close redhead drake get away from us, even after he came back around for his fallen hen. Ughhhh

On the upside, Harry had another great day handling well from the blind and he and I were able to hunt up a long off crip gray in the marsh. A+ for him, D- for our shooting.

3 grays, 1 redhead

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[DComeaux]

Good to see Harry's doing his thing.

[Darren]

Good to see Harry's doing his thing.

I might add that he did inadvertently put us in a bit of a bind by setting the pirogue free from the (island) blind, and I had my knee boots on today. Fortunately dusty volunteered to trudge through the pond in his waders to fetch the 'rogue and paddle so we weren't stranded.

[DComeaux]

Good to see Harry's doing his thing.

I might add that he did inadvertently put us in a bit of a bind by setting the pirogue free from the (island) blind, and I had my knee boots on today. Fortunately dusty volunteered to trudge through the pond in his waders to fetch the 'rogue and paddle so we weren't stranded.

I got a mental picture of him sitting near the pirogue looking back at y'all with a sly grin on his face while shoving the boat off with a push of his front leg.

[Darren]

Basically like that, ha! He bailed out of the pirogue and swam back to the blind while the wind took the pirogue south, fortunately caught up in small islands.

[Darren]

Wed. 11/25/2015
SE La public marsh
Johnny, Harry and I
Wind E/NE 10-15+, pt cloudy skies, 50's to start

Did a lot of looking around in two portions of our marsh yesterday to reveal very little, just not many birds around right now. Set up this morning where we'd been seeing some mottleds and mallards and a few grays trafficking the last couple of hunts and it showed some promise. Shot poorly on one easy chance we had, getting 1 from a trio of committed grays dark and early, but after that most everything stayed out on edge of dekes and wouldn't finish, (or as in the case of the numerous mottleds, just avoided us and did what mottleds routinely do). The two birds we did take down fell a good way out in the marsh around us but were readily recovered thanks to Harry, he had a great day. Not much shooting in the area around us, know of two blinds that scratched, one had half dozen birds. With a little better luck on the finishing, and better shooting, we'd likely have put together a decent strap, maybe next time.

1 gray, 1 pintail hen


Rare (for us) pintail to go along with our usual gray

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Stout east winds predicted rest of this week, not sure if I'll bother with a hunt this weekend with tides sure to be way up. We just don't have many birds right now which is pretty spooky. Green wings are nonexistent and grays are very spotty with no rafts holding on nearby big waters per usual. Coots also in minimal numbers unusual for this time of season. Either we're missing the boat, or there's a whole lot of birds north of us and scattered with recent deluges covering the Miss. Flyway.

[DComeaux]

by Darren » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:24 pm Either we're missing the boat, or there's a whole lot of birds north of us and scattered with recent deluges covering the Miss. Flyway.

Kind of how I feel. Just not enough down to cover everyone, even those like me in a two and quarter of a five year gar hole slump. Although, one or two goods hunts could change my feelings, drastically.

[Darren]

by Darren » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:24 pm Either we're missing the boat, or there's a whole lot of birds north of us and scattered with recent deluges covering the Miss. Flyway.

Kind of how I feel. Just not enough down to cover everyone, even those like me in a two and quarter of a five year gar hole slump. Although, one or two goods hunts could change my feelings, drastically.

You're definitely not alone from what I've heard from my in-laws on that end. Was predictably slow in our marsh over the weekend for those that braved the floods and hot weather. That said, Saturday Johnny hit one of his areas solo and had 5 and saw a fair many piddling about. Sunday was a scratch/DNS for all I talked to, Johnny included, in same location from day before. Planning to get back out there Wednesday if nothing comes up.